TESTIMONIALS

PATRICK SPENCE

CEO, Sonos, Inc.

We are experts in telling the Sonos story to consumers, but Jerry helped us find the right story that would resonate with investors. Jerry helped us identify areas where we would face our toughest questions, and how to handle them. Our IPO was more successful, as a result of our time with Jerry. I’d highly recommend Jerry & his program.

PIERRE OMIDYAR

Founder & Chairman, eBay

Jerry’s technique is both masterful and universal because it finds common ground between audience and speaker, hard questions and direct answers, all with a very simple principle: truth.

REED HASTINGS

Founder & CEO, Netflix, Inc.

I benefited from Jerry’s work way back in 1995 for my first IPO, and then went back again in 2002 for my second IPO—in both cases his teaching added tremendous clarity to our investor presentations.

AARON SKONNARD

CEO and Co-Founder, Pluralsight LLC

As CEO and Co-Founder, I know Pluralsight’s story like the back of my hand. Working with Jerry, however, helped me refine and tell our story in a way that resonated powerfully with our investors. Jerry is a master at his craft, and I continue to depend on his methodology on a daily basis.

Jerry’s coaching has been invaluable for many of our c-suite clients as they prepare for their debut or return to the public markets. His high-impact presentation approach has been tremendously successful. In addition, Jerry’s book series that detail his differentiating concepts have been incredibly instructive.

We are experts in telling the Sonos story to consumers, but Jerry helped us find the right story that would resonate with investors. Using his framework, he helped us unlock the aspects of our story that would be most compelling to investors. Jerry helped us identify areas where we would face our toughest questions, and how to handle them. Our story got better, our handling of questions improved, and our IPO was more successful, as a result of our time with Jerry. I’d highly recommend Jerry & his program to anyone embarking on an IPO.

The perfect presentation has the potential to impact the most important events in your company’s life: financing, mergers, partnerships. Despite this, most executives and entrepreneurs continually fall short when it comes to delivering a crisp, clear message in a compelling and concrete fashion. Luckily for them, the master, Jerry Weissman, has decided to share his secrets in Presenting to Win.

By far the best public speaking and presenting class I have ever been a part of! My highest recommendation for any human being that wishes to be a better public speaker or simply understand the psychology of communication. Five Gold Stars!

I want to thank you for putting on one of the best trainings I've had over my 30+ year career. What made it so good for me was your enthusiasm for your craft! I will be certain to take the skills I’ve learned to improve and enhance my face to face meetings with my customers. It's no wonder why the Huffington Post calls you the world’s number one presentation coach!

Jerry’s methods in Presenting to Win helped us raise our own first venture fund with twice the commitments we needed in half the time. Those same methods then helped many of our portfolio companies not just in their presentations, but had a significant impact in the marketing of their products.

I highly recommend Jerry’s 3-day workshop for any company in the IPO process. As CEO and Co-Founder, I know Pluralsight’s story like the back of my hand. Working with Jerry, however, helped me refine and tell our story in a way that resonated powerfully with our investors. Jerry is a master at his craft, and I continue to depend on his methodology on a daily basis.

I have sent all my team members to the Suasive program. The most common feedback I get is "life changing," and "the best thing Ericsson has ever done for my career." Now we’re all speaking the same language.

Jerry Weissman is a true master of his craft. His coaching not only changed the way we think about our presentations, but has provided us with valuable tools which will allow us to communicate clear and powerful messages going forward.

Jerry is the very best at what he does. I have now worked with him directly or have referred him to management of boards I have been on for several IPOs. Associations include @Home Network, Fortinet, Yahoo, Zuora and others, and I have been a repeat client and reader of his books. Every time I go to a session, I learn more even if just a refresher. What seems easy and obvious is not and there really is a science to effective presentations for IPOs, analyst earnings calls, speeches such as one I recently gave in China, and just talking to large groups.

Talend went public at a time when few companies were braving the public markets. In spite of a challenging market we priced above the range and the stock traded up 50% on the first day. Having worked with Jerry in the past I knew he was exactly the guy I wanted to train our entire exec team for this critical time. He’s the best in the business. He has a unique toolkit that he arms you with, and he also gives incredibly perceptive feedback as you’re learning it. If you’re doing an IPO, use Jerry. You’ll thank me for it.

Jerry's workshop was the most useful presentation workshop I have ever attended. Jerry has a great approach to presentations that has made a significant difference in the way I present. I truly learned more than I expected.

Buffering, Roman Pillars, and Topspinning; Jerry creates a language that breaks down the science of effective storytelling and allows you to connect with your audience. I thought we were good storytellers, but Jerry is the best.

I want to thank you for educating me to be a better presenter. I truly learnt a lot from the master. You are certainly the best. I have been practicing day and night since our lesson and I already can see the difference you have made in my life.

If you want to have a successful roadshow, call Jerry—because you want him on your team. Jerry is a master at his trade. His training sessions and workshop were invaluable and his approach to training is both humbling and encouraging. He not only prepares you for the roadshow, but also for being a public company. Today as we prepare for meetings with investors we still refer back to what we learned from the roadshow training.

Jerry’s coaching and advice in preparation for Sea’s IPO roadshow was invaluable. Learning from the best in the industry helped improve my presentation skills and enabled me to convey Sea’s story and value proposition in a high-impact way. Thanks to Jerry, we delivered a winning presentation and a successful IPO. I highly recommend training with Jerry to any CEO considering an IPO, the benefits are immense on the roadshow and beyond.

Twilio faced two big challenges heading into our IPO. Our business model is unique (we are a platform, not a SAAS application) and the markets were unfriendly (with no Silicon Valley IPOs before our offering in June 2016). Our training sessions with Suasive were integral in conveying the attractiveness of our business in our roadshow presentations and Q&A sessions. I highly recommend working with Jerry and Suasive to improve any high impact presentation.

Jerry's workshop was the most useful presentation workshop I have ever attended. Jerry has a great approach to presentations that has made a significant difference in the way I present. I truly learned more than I expected.

Chip Heath

Bestselling Author, Made to Stick & Decisive

If you’ve ever had butterflies when standing before an audience, this book is for you. Jerry Weissman is one of the world’s experts in teaching people to overcome their nerves, and his secret starts with something very natural—the comfort we feel when having a conversation with one other person.

Jerry’s classic is the definitive encapsulation of a true ‘maestro’ playing his ‘A’ game. His techniques were an absolutely critical success factor in Luminous raising $80mm in one of the toughest market environments I’ve ever seen. There isn’t a successful entrepreneur I know who won’t benefit from leveraging his persuasive, maximum-impact presentation principles.

During one of the most important periods of my career, Jerry used the concepts in Presenting to Win to prepare me and my team for the EarthLink IPO road show. He helped us hone our message so that it could be crisply communicated to our audience, and in the process, we gained a better understanding of our own strategy than ever before. Jerry teaches you how to tell a story, which is more critical to success than most people think.

Twilio went public during an unfriendly market, yet the strength of our presentations and our ability to effectively answer investors’ questions helped us close 92% above the offering price. Our training sessions with Suasive were integral to our success, specifically shaping our story to an investor audience and our approach to handling Q&A. Jerry and Suasive is a must for any presentation.

Jerry's training sessions and techniques were invaluable as we prepared for Opower's IPO. He helped us navigate a completely foreign process, and enabled us to communicate our company mission in a clear and compelling way. His insights will stay with me as we move forward as a public company.

Jerry Weissman is an expert in helping leading technology executives improve the clarity and substance of their communication. Jerry does an excellent job of giving sound recommendations that will lead to better communications and leadership.

There are those rare people who can stand up in front of an audience and deliver an impromptu, high-impact message. For the rest of us, there is Jerry Weissman, who helps us create a high-impact presentation. His methodology lets you go beyond the jargon of any profession and develop a presentation that will be meaningful to your audience. Miraculously, your confidence will soar. He helped me and many others in business...and I am glad to see that he wrote a book. Beyond the logic of preparing presentations using his methods, the book is full of little nuggets that I will want to refer to over and over again. And so will you.

I enjoyed working with Jerry as we prepared for our IPO roadshow. He has an approach that is focused on presentation fundamentals combined with opportunities to practice, review, and improve. I can confidently say that working with Jerry improved my presentation skills and elevated the overall quality of our presentation.

Jerry Weissman has had an enormous impact on the companies that I’ve managed: First Tuesday and now Ariadne Capital. Through his sessions and techniques, he’s helped me to bring everyone onto the same page with a clear statement of what we’re trying to achieve and to get credit for what we’re doing by telling a better story. His latest book is testament to the fact that ‘Form is Content.’

Jerry’s book Presenting to Win is, like his consulting practice, totally on-point and practical. Jerry has worked with many of the companies I took public as an investment banker or invested in as a venture capitalist. He made a huge difference in each and every situation. The best evidence is that even the most polished CEOs in the valley made dramatically more effective presentations with his expert guidance. Since Jerry can’t work with everyone individually, it is terrific to have his approach and thoughts available in Presenting to Win.

Jerry’s help has been of enormous value to many of my companies over the years (at Venrock). Jerry has a unique ability to guide management teams to clearly identify and convey their key messages in a manner best suited to obtain the desired impact on their target audience. The transformation can be magical at times, and we have found that not only does the management team appreciate his advice, but the target audience also, as they are able to understand the key issues faster and more clearly than otherwise possible.

Glenn E. Nedwin, Ph.D.

CEO, TripleDNA Consulting, LLC

As a scientist and businessman, I made hundreds of presentations to varied audiences, however these presentations were often too scientific or detailed. Jerry’s outstanding methods and process helped to transform and hone my presentation skills to get laser-focused on the message of each slide, the flow of the presentation and the manner of presenting. This greatly aided me in raising a Series B round from VCs and eventually in negotiating a deal to sell the company to DuPont.

As one of the key advisors in preparing for our IPO, Jerry's coaching mattered, was applied, and worked. We were well prepared (we met over 150 investors in 11 cities) and had a great road show. With Jerry's help, we were able to talk about the Control4 opportunity and business as well as answer questions in a way that resonated with investors, which helped us start building the book from the first day and culminated in our offering being well oversubscribed by pricing-day.

Going into it, I had read two of the Jerry’s books—and [thought] that I had a good handle on many of the things that I and we (as an org) needed to address in terms of presentation skills. I could not have been more wrong. Academically, I probably could have passed a written exam with flying colors. However, after being in the room, learning, viewing examples and working in breakout sessions—it became even more clear how much better we all could be doing in terms of audience engagement, slide creation, and answering difficult questions.

Gary Stroy

President & CEO, IntelliDx, Inc.

I took Jerry’s course to prepare for the Abaxis IPO, but what he taught me I have used every time I get in front of people, not only in formal presentations, but in just everyday communication. And, now as a VC, I listen to 300–400 presentations a year. It’s just incredulous how so many entrepreneurs don’t know how to present their companies in a clear, concise way that would get you excited about them as an investment.

Jerry Weissman’s genius is getting successful leaders like me to realize we are imbeciles when it comes to effective communication that is not email. In particular, Jerry broadens one’s perspective on how to use the visual well, how to focus on the audience’s perspective and on how to keep the narrative strong and compelling. I benefited from Jerry’s work way back in 1995 for my first IPO, and then went back again in 2002 for my second IPO—in both cases his teaching added tremendous clarity to our investor presentations. Not only should IPO-bound CEOs read this book, but everyone who does presentations should absorb its messages.

Jerry Weissman and Suasive helped us raise our game for the IPO roadshow. Not only did we strengthen our company positioning as a result of our work with Jerry, but we also learned effective presentation techniques, how to handle a variety of topics and situations in Q&A, and how to match our visuals to our words and story to create a memorable presentation. I would absolutely recommend Jerry's coaching to any senior executive preparing for an IPO or major company presentation.

Jerry's IPO course covers everything that you and your team will need to be fully prepared for every investor situation you will encounter during your IPO road show. I would not consider doing a road show without spending a few days with Jerry learning his proven methods for successful investor presentations. Both my CFO and I thought the time was an excellent investment.

Perception is often as, if not more, important than reality. Great presentation is more important than great substance in creating that perception. I don’t know anybody who has more experience than Jerry in creating great perceptions.

David M. Traversi

Former Founder & Managing Director, 2020 Growth Partners, LLC

Value simply cannot be realized unless it is communicated. Untold wealth has died on the vine because it was not effectively presented to key constituents in the value chain. In this respect, Mr. Weissman and his methods are responsible for the realization of tremendous value in the American economy over the past 15 years. Nobody teaches the art and science of business presentations better than Mr. Weissman. He is more than the best in his class...he created the class. I have recommended him to dozens of companies. With his help, they have dramatically improved the effectiveness of their internal and external presentations. In Presenting to Win, he makes his powerful techniques accessible to every person who cares about truly realizing value in their business presentations.

Jerry Weissman helped prepare my management team for our IPO. I sat in on some of the sessions and was most impressed with Jerry’s innovative ways of teaching and optimizing effective executive communication methods. This training, encapsulated well in his new book, In the Line of Fire, paid off handsomely during our numerous road show presentations.

Jerry’s intricate knowledge of the IPO roadshow pitch process and ability to put a room at ease while teaching complex skills was invaluable to our effort. A constant professional, Jerry always led by example and made himself available anytime he was needed. Simply put, he is a master of his craft.

If you want to have a successful roadshow, call Jerry—because you want him on your team. Jerry is a master at his trade. His training sessions and workshop were invaluable and his approach to training is both humbling and encouraging. He not only prepares you for the roadshow, but also for being a public company. Today as we prepare for meetings with investors we still refer back to what we learned from the roadshow training.

Clear, concise, and high-impact communications are necessary for every business executive in today’s high-speed world. Jerry Weissman provides leaders with simple tools they can draw on quickly in order to maximize the return on all of their communications efforts.

Jerry helps you focus on the substance of your presentation rather than just its form. He forces you to think clearly and succinctly. As a result, not only does your audience understand your business better, you do too.

San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1990, quoting Don Valentine, Chairman of the Board of Cisco Systems:Cisco originally expected to get $13.50 to $15.50 per share for its stock. "But during the road show the company was so well-received" that it managed to sell 2.8 million shares at $18 apiece, Valentine said. He attributed "at least $2 to $3" of the increase to Weissman's coaching.

The skills Jerry has taught my team have created a meaningful impact to our bottom line. Our sales team presents better, our leadership team communication has improved and our executives can give our pitch–anytime, anywhere. The Suasive model not only provides you skills to present, but the skills are core to the ability to communicate and convey your point.

After you spend years building your startup, there’s a fleeting moment in time where perception meets reality in the creation of the market value around it. There’s not a person in the Valley that has coaxed more multiple points out of the market at that point than Jerry. His coaching on how to really efficiently organize and explain ANY subject matter is proven, and shows in his book.

One of Pantheon’s client-facing professionals took Jerry’s Suasive program. The next day, armed with her Opening Gambit, Roman Columns, and WIIFYs, she flew to Chicago for a meeting with a public pension fund. She nailed her presentation and raised $160 million! Now we have all of our client-facing professionals attend Jerry’s course!